GOLF

Southland Times, Issue 21832, 8 October 1932, Page 16

GOLF

(By '

"Cleet")

Fixtures. AT QUEEN’S PARK. October B.—Bogey handicap. Bogey handicap at Queen’s Park this afternoon. The rain which has fallen within the last 48 hours will do an immense amount of good to the local courses, which were parched and hard. They could do with more yet. The Queen's Park Club intends running a one-day tournament on Labour Day. A bogey match has been arranged, for the morning and a stroke competition for the afternoon. The official closing of the season at Queen’s Park on October 29 will take the form of a gala with putting, approaching and putting, iron shot, long driving and other competitions. In the evening the prizes will be presented at a smoke concert. A team from the Avondale (Christchurch) Club visited Oamaru last week-end for an inter-club match with the Oamaru Club. The Avondale side was headed by J. Millard, one of Canterbury’s strongest players, and in his single with G. L. Cuthbertson, No. 1 for Oamaru, he was round in 74, equalling the standard scratch score for the course.

B. M. Silk, the N.Z. Kirk-Windeyer Cup player, recently played his home course, Belmont, Wanganui, in 69 strokes. Silk made an excellent showing in the open and amateur championships at Shirley last year and should show up prominently in this year’s championships at Heretaunga next month. The St. Clair Club, playing on its own course, was too good for the Otago Club’s team in an inter-club match played\last week-end. Playing No. 1 for Otago Dr. K. Ross beat C. B. Wight 2 and 1. On the other hand, W. Clayton, No. 2 for St. Clair, scored decisively over B. V. Wright, beating him 4 and 2. In a medal competition at Balmacewan on Saturday Wright had a round of 73. The N.Z. Golf Council has issued a supplementary list of playing members of affiliated clubs with stroke handicaps of 4 and under. It includes the names of C. A. Masters (plus 1), A. Thom (1) and R. A. Wilson (2). On Labour Day, 24th inst., there will be tournaments at Auckland (Middlemore), Palmerston North, Te Aroha, Hawera, Masterton, Hamilton, Wanganui (Seafield), Ashburton and Oamaru.

The Stead Cup competition, which is being conducted by the Queen’s Park Ladies’ Club, commences on Monday and continues for three days. Satisfactory entries have been received, and the indications point to the tournament being a complete success. The qualifying rounds in conjunction with handicap events will be played on Monday, and the first and second rounds of match play on Tuesday with the final over 3G holes on Wednesday. Handicap competitions also appear on the programme for Tuesday and Wednesday. At a meeting of the N.Z. Golf Council on Monday there was a full discussion as to the date and venue of the 1933 Kirk-Windeyer Cup matches. It was finally decided that the matches shall be played on one of the golf courses at Auckland, the decision as regards the course to be made at a later meeting. It was decided that the matches shall be played about Easter (the middle of April) 1933, and that the golfing authorities in Australia be notified accordingly.

It was intended that a team from the Invercargill Club should play a challenge match for the Laing Shield with the holders, the Tuatapere club, at Tuatapere this week-end, but owing to the absence of Mr A. E. Smith, who was keenly interested in the match, the fixture has been postponed. The President of the Invercargill Club received word last Sunday of the death of a brother and left hurriedly for the north.

At a meeting held during the week the committee of the Invercargill club received a request from His Worship the Mayor that facilities for golf at Otatara should be provided for the commander and officers of the Diomede during the forthcoming visit to Bluff of that unit of the N.Z. division of his Majesty’s navy. The committee gladly acceded to the request. There are generally some keen golfers among the officers of the warships and they are always welcome visitors. The committee also offered the hospitality of the links to his Worship during the Diomede’s visit.

As many members of the Invercargill club have expressed the wish to continue competitive golf during the summer months and a number of prizes have been offered for competition the committee of the Invercargill club considered the matter at a recent meeting. It was decided to set up a special committee consisting of Messrs J. C. Prain and W. Buchan to draw up a suitable programme and post it at the clubhouse with all information so that members desiring to compete could make their arrangements accordingly. Some excellent cards were returned by members of the Queen’s Park Ladies’ Club on Wednesday last when L.G.U. medals were competed for. The condiitions were ideal, the state of the course enabling greater length to be obtained through the green than was the case earlier in the season. Mrs Speirs was at the top of her form and had a fine round of 87, the best gross score of the season. Her handicap of 16 gave her a net 71, which was the bes l . A grade score. Mrs Wilson was also in good form, her card reading 89—16—73, while Mrs McCreary’s card was marked 90—14—76. The B graders also shaped well, Mrs Sutherland winning with the excellent figures of 97—29—68. Miss R. Pope’s 112—36—76 won the C grade competition. A further crop of handicap reductions has been announced as follows: Mrs McCreary to 12; Mrs Speirs to 13; Mrs Wilson to 14; Miss Thomson to 19; Mrs Sutherland to 19; Mrs Earl to 25; Mrs Inglis to 24; Mrs McGregor to 23; Mrs Peters to 26; Mrs Steele to 28; Mrs McEachran to 28; Mrs Clark to 32; Miss R. Pope to 34.

Proof has been obtained by the Advisory Committee of the Royal and Ancient Club regarding the average carry achieved by a scratch golfer as compared with the carries upon which the present scheme of scratch scores was based some years ago. Tests made during the international matches at Troon, without the knowledge of the players, showed that drive carries both with and against the wind averaged over 200 yards. Four or five years ago the Golfing Unions devised standard scratch scores for all the courses in

Great Britain, and on these scores the handicaps of club members were based. Since then the power of the ball has increased to such an extent that the standard score system is obsolete. When the new scheme comes into operation it will be found that the scratch scores of clubs affiliated to the Golfing Unions of England, Scotland, Ireland, and Wales will be lowered, and consequently the present handicaps of golfers will be increased. That is to say, the present scratch man will probably find himself playing off 1 or 2.

QUEEN’S PARK ACTIVITIES.

The final medal match of the season was played at Queen’s Park last Saturday in windy weather. The course was hard and fast, and when playing with the wind great length could be obtained from the tee. The feature of the match was the excellent performances of some of the longer handicap players, no fewer than seven having net scores below 70. In addition eight others had 74 or less. Naturally the handicappers will have made some drastic ’“cuts” by now. In the A grade section A. C. Steele and O. G. Gilmour were going well and both had cards marked 84—12—72 to tie for first place. Steele, however, had the better score over the last nine holes, and was the ultimate winner. G. E. Glennie (85—12—73) and T. H. Mills (86—13— 73) were next and three others had net scores equalling the standard scratch score—J. Nicholson (80 —6—-74), A. E. Wish (86—12—74) and G. Tapper (86 —12—74). Nicholson’s 80 was the best gross score of the day, and indicates that his low handicap is fully justified. When G. E. Williams came in early and posted up a net 67 on the B grade list it was generally supposed that he would win, but once again his luck was out, for two others did even better. These were D. W. Reed and J. T. Craig, who has not been playing long, both of whose cards were marked 90—24—66. Reed was declared the winner on the count over the last nine holes, and his success was a most popular one, as he has been a trier all the season. Williams had the best gross score, 84, among the juniors and must just about have qualified for promotion to A grade. H. Chapman was «oing better than usual and with 91—24— 67 tied with Williams, a stroke behind the leaders. J. C. Scandrett showed promising form, completing the course in 89 for a net 68. Good cards were also returned by R. Kidd and J. W. Colquhoun whose figures read: 85—16— 69. These two have also earned a handicap to entitle them to A grade status. There were a number of other excellent cards which another day would probably have been more prominent, but on Saturday the leaders made the pace just a bit too solid. Last Saturday’s medal match at Queen’s Park marked the close of the aggregate and ringer competitions, the scores in the latter being very close. F. J. Perham, with an aggregate of 290 for his four best rounds in the A grade aggregate competition beat T. H. Mills for first place by three strokes, T. J. Gosling being next with 294, followed by J. Nicholson with 295. In the B grade A. C. Steele’s 275 was five strokes better than any of the other scores, a net 62 early in the season mainly accounting for the difference. For a first year player G. E. Williams did very well to register 280, his net 67 last Saturday being chiefly responsible for bringing him into second place. J. W. Colquhoun and A. W. Wilson tied for third place with 282. Perham also had a win in the ringer competition, his card for the season, v ith half handicap shown, being 67 —5—62. He not only had the best net score, but the best gross as well and deserved to win. Williams was only half a stroke away with 71—8J —62J, Colquhoun being third with 71—8—63. Five others had net 66’s. Now that summer conditions prevail with the course giving greater distance, it is proposed to handicap from a standard scratch score of 70 on the Park instead of the present 74. Players with handicaps of 16 and over will therefore have to break 68 net before they will be reduced. Those with handicaps from 10 to 15 will have to return a net score below 69 to merit a reduction. This plan has been adopted in preference to the system in force last year, when all the handicaps were reduced, some by three and four strokes, according to grade. Playing better golf in the final than he had hitherto displayed, G. McQuarrie won the Holloway Shield, the chief handicap event at Queen’s Park, defeating G. E. Glennie one up. Both in fact were playing particularly well, Glennie being round in 82 and McQuarrie in 83. The latter was in receipt of four strokes, but was playing well enough to have beaten Glennie on even terms. Glennie commenced in promising fashion, following a long drive by finding the green with his next and holing out a win in 4. McQuarrie was able to square the match with a 4 at the short second, then Glennie took the lead again with a 5 at the third. The fourtK was halved in 4’s, and the match was all square when McQuarrie found the cup with his third at the next hole. Glennie took the lead again at the sixth when he holed out in 5 to his opponent’s 6, but McQuarrie got it back again when the figures were reversed at the long seventh, Glennie having trouble in the rough. The latter made no mistakes at the eighth which he won with a birdie 4 to be one up. The ninth was halved in s’s. Playing the 10th McQuarrie put his second into the sand bunker near the 11th green, but recovered with a beautiful shot to the green and won the hole with a 5. They were thus all square again. Glennie then took a hand, capturing the 11th with a birdie 3 and the 12th with another 3, to stand 2 up. Both were on the 13th green with their third shots, but McQuarrie holed a difficult putt for a win with a birdie 4. Glennie failed to connect with his drive at Waihopai and had to play his second from the rough in front of the tee. McQuarrie took the hole with a 6 and squared the match. Neither found the green with his tee shot at the 15th, which was halved in 4’s. A bogey 5 at the 16th gave McQuarrie a win, Glennie again missing his tee shot. The 17th was halved in 3’s, McQuarrie being dormy one. Both were on the last green with their seconds, and Glennie, playing the odd, made things interesting by holing a long putt for a birdie 3. McQuarrie, however, rose to the occasion and did likewise to hold his lead of one up and take the shield. His putting and marshie play were sound all the way. THE GORE CLUB. The unfortunate player in the Gore Club’s A grade championship was undoubtedly A. J. Hawke, who was unable to meet R. Aitken in the semifinal owing to an injury to his wrist. Hawke had been playing consistently well throughout the season and would almost certainly have contested the final with F. D. Scott. Had these two played off the game should have been a particularly interesting one, as many players had given Hawke a good chance of winning championship honours. R. Aitken certainly did well to reach the final even allowing for the fact that he would probably have had to lower his colours to Hawke had the latter been able to play. Aitken played a number of good holes in the play-off with Scott, but the winner did not look like being beaten at any stage of the game and won by a very comfortable margin. During the third round, particularly Scott went off his game for a time and he has played much better golf than he did in the final. The winter golfing season was brought to a close at Gore this week, both the ladies’ and the men’s clubs holding successful functions to wind up the season.